Aramco 100k B/D Upgrading Feed

...pacity Rabigh refinery on the Saudi Red Sea coast produced just over 100,000 b/d of fuel oil in 2016 and 2017. In a filing to the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) on 27 February, Petro Rabigh – which is owned 37.5% each by Aramco and Sumitomo with the remaining 25% of shares traded on Tadawul – in...

Kuwait Set For First LNG Imports Of The Year

...Sahla LNG tanker docked alongside it on 26 February, carrying Kuwait’s first LNG supplies of the year. Al Sahla had not unloaded by the time MEES went to press, so no imports will be registered for February. Final figures are not yet out, but imports last year will have exceeded 2017’s record 3....

Mubadala Ties Up Thailand Contract

...und. It also operates the adjacent Andaman I, and has a non-operating stake at Andaman II. Mubadala reports current net output of 360,000 boe/d from its portfolio, up from 320,000 boe/d in 2017. The boost was largely due to its acquisition of 10% at Egypt’s Zohr in March 2018 (MEES, 20 April 2018).    ...

China LNG: Record January Imports; Record Qatar, Oman Volumes

...an, having only ever supplied six cargoes to China to Q3 2017, has now supplied 11 in the last three months: four in November, three in December and four (188,000 tons) in January. Korea is Oman’s top customer taking 360,000 tons (six cargoes) for January, in line with average 2018 deliveries (MEES, 18...

Chevron, Genel 2020 KRG Vision

....9%, Shamaran 20.1%, Marathon 15%, KRG 25%) in July 2017 (MEES, 14 July 2017). Momentum is again building in Kurdistan’s oil sector, and Chevron is not the only US Major eying production startup. ExxonMobil is developing the Baeshiqa license (DNO 32%op, ExxonMobil 32%, Turkish Energy Company 16%, KR...

Turkey 2018 Crude Imports (‘000 B/D): Iran Volumes Fall Almost 40% From Record 2017

Iraq’s Costly Liquids Habit

...Iraq’s gas shortages mean the country is dependent on burning liquids for electricity generation. Total liquids burn edged up in 2018 to 328,000 b/d from 318,000 b/d in 2017 as post-war reconstruction drove increased demand. The increase would have been considerably greater had it not been fo...

Tunisia’s Oil Woes Here To Stay

...terested in heading for the door than splashing the cash. Tunisia’s glory days of being a net oil exporter are long gone. Crude output has nosedived in recent years and in 2018 it only managed 38,400 b/d. That this fall is of a relatively-modest 1% from 2017’s previous 50-year low is only due to the fa...

Oman Looks To Bag More IOCs In Latest Licensing Round

...d round saw the likes of Occidental (Oxy) expand its portfolio in the sultanate (MEES, 9 November 2018) whilst the 2017 bid round brought Italy’s Eni and Qatar Petroleum into the fold (MEES, 15 September 2017). Oman’s Oil Minister Muhammad al-Rumhy told MEES last year that bringing bigger, more pr...

India Crude Imports: Iraq, Saudi Dominant Despite Looming Long-Haul Challenge

...*India imported a record 4.51mn b/d of crude in 2018, up 4.5% on 2017. At 2.94mn b/d, volumes from the Middle East for 2018 were also a record, though the Gulf’s market share, at around 64% has remained static for the past three years (see Chart 1 and table, p20).   *The second half of...

Taiwan Crude Imports Hit 8-Year High, Opec Share At Record Low

...re stagnant last year, those from key African Opec producer Angola collapsed from 70,100 b/d in 2017 when Angola was the fourth largest supplier, to just 10,700 b/d for 2018. *Among Gulf suppliers, Saudi Arabia remains Taiwan’s top supplier, with 270,000 b/d for 2018, 30% of total imports. Vo...

Australia Challenges Qatar For Taiwan LNG Top Spot: Just The Prelude?

....4% on 2017’s previous record. But Taiwan had a bumper December, with its 2018 total of 16.9mn tons, up slightly on 2017’s previous high. Coupled with monthly record imports from China and Korea, December saw the highest ever monthly LNG trade volumes (see chart, p24). In Taiwan, Qatar remained we...

Saudi Crown Prince’s Asian Tour: Lots Of Promises, Little Detail

...increasingly precarious dependence on Chinese debt. As for Saudi Arabia, the investments could guarantee access to a growing market for its crude oil. It provided 88,000 b/d of Pakistan’s 212,000 b/d oil imports in the 2017-18 financial year, behind only the UAE on 121,000 b/d (MEES, 9 No...

Gulf Loses Patience With Sudan

...$1; a lack of banking liquidity is expected to bring further declines. Government plans to print more large-denomination banknotes have been thwarted by a lack of the right kind of paper. Gross international reserves in 2017 were just $1.1bn, providing less than two months of imports cover, according to th...

Saudi Reaps Rewards Of Downstream Investment

...cord and just 1mn barrels shy of the monthly record set in February 2017. Even while being helped by drawdowns, the production surge will have placed a toll on infrastructure and may have contributed to recent, partial outages at the 1.5mn b/d offshore Safaniyah field reported by Reuters. The up...

Saudi Renewables Plan: More Answers, More Questions

...ergy still costs money to generate. Assuming the government is serious about the Repdo plans, it needs to act quickly. A stepping stone 2024 target of 27.3 GW is no easy feat – the Mena region’s total installed wind and solar capacity as of 2017 was just 5.7GW. Planned 2019 tenders amount to 3....

Egypt Raises $4bn Bond, Posts $10.4bn 2H18 Deficit

...6.7bn ($10.4bn) for the first six months of the 2018-19 financial year (July-December 2018), more or less unchanged from the E£187.3bn ($10.6bn) for the first half of the previous 2017-18 financial year. The 1H 2018-19 figures suggest that Egypt is likely to post a significantly lower deficit for 20...

Petroceltic Threatens Legal Action Over Egypt Dues

...der to get them to pay their dues. But after investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Egypt and creating many jobs we have no choice,” the firm Tweeted on 12 February. The firm’s most recent filings for 2017 (filed October 2018) indicate that the company’s “trade and other receivables” soared fr...

Iraq-Saudi Border Crossing Progresses

...ghdad – partly in a belated recognition that rebuffing the Iraqi government might help counter Iran’s stronghold there (MEES, 27 October 2017). The Saudis agreed to reopen the crossing in August 2017 (MEES, 1 September 2017), and the move is expected to facilitate trade and more movement between the two co...

Adnoc Starts Pre-FEED For New Refinery

...noc Refining earlier this month restarted the residue fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) at its 417,000 b/d Ruwais West refinery. The key unit was out for two years after being damaged in an early 2017 fire. The RFCC shutdown forced Adnoc to export fuel oil normally processed there while importing re...